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my fair lady

Getting to know all about you…I’ve never actually seen all of the King & I. Which is probably why I always think this song is in My Fair Lady, and which itself is odd because I love My Fair Lady and have practically the whole thing memorized, so you’d think I wouldn’t make that mistake. And now I’m thinking about Rex Harrison, something I do quite frequently. Unfortunately, we’ve already concluded that he doesn’t sing this particular song, but it fits today’s post better than “Why Can’t the English Teach Their Children How to Speak.”

Because “getting to know you” is the point I’m at in my relationship with my collection. I have 64 books so far, but who’s counting? (It’s for statistics, I swear!) That’s a pretty small number. These 64 books were the books ordered for me by the Libraries Director, but from here on out, everything ordered will be coming directly from me! And so I have a pretty special opportunity to know what I have, I think. I’ve always been in awe of the librarians who know their collections inside out. How do they do it? I’ve known people in big academic places who can find you anything in their physical collections (and who did a pretty damn good job online, too). History of Medicine folk are the best. It’s not that big a deal to pull out the Vesalius, everyone knows you have that, but when you nonchalantly point to an old dusty thing that contains the home remedies of a local woman from the eighteenth century, I’m impressed. If you’re one of them, care to reveal your secrets? I’m guessing it involves something like a lot of time, and a mind like a steel trap. I’d like some shortcuts.

But back to my own opportunity: while the books are cataloged at the big hospital, I get to process them. This involves a lot of fun stuff like putting call number stickers on the binding, placing card pockets (yep, still have those!), and the oh so fun stamping of a certain page with “Property of” to thwart the theft of our expensive titles:

And so I get to hold every book that will go on my shelves (once I get the shelves…) in my own hands. I think that’s kind of nice. Maybe next I’ll ask them out to dinner. But that’s probably as far as I’ll go. I don’t want Rex to get too worked up.

“Professor Henry Higgins: Marry Freddy! What an infantile idea, what a heartless, wicked, brainless thing to do. She’ll regret it. She’ll regret it! It’s doomed before they even take the vow.” (this closing quote worked a lot better before I remembered that whomever played Freddy did not sing Getting to Know You, but maybe there is a strange resemblance between him and Julie Andrews?)

One last pic: isn’t my little collection cute? I love them all equally. But the Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary most equally of all.